PART II.] 



ALPINE FLOWERS FOR GARDENS 



269 



ceed well with them, because the 

 plants are often transplanted at the 

 wrong season. The usual plan is to 

 do it just when the first or second 

 flower has opened. At this period of 

 growth, the plant is forming a new 

 tuber for the following year, and if 

 in any way injured, it shrinks 

 and dies. If, instead of this, the 

 plants are marked when in flower and 

 allowed to remain until August or 

 September, when the newly-formed 

 tuber will be matured, the risk of 

 transplanting it is considerably 

 lessened. 



The following are among the kinds 

 most worthy of culture : 



Orchis foliosa. One of the finest of the 

 hardy Orchids, from 1 foot to 2 feet or 

 more in height, with long dense spikes 

 of rosy-purple blossoms, spotted with a 

 darker hue. It begins to flower about 

 the middle of May, and continues for a 

 considerable time. It delights in moist 

 sheltered nooks at the base of the rock- 

 garden, or in some similar place, and it 

 should be planted in deep, light soil. 

 Madeira. 



0. latifolia (Marsh Orchis). A. native 

 kind, 1 foot to 1^ feet high, flowering 

 in early summer purple in long dense 

 spikes. It is easily grown, forming fine 

 tufts in damp, boggy soil in peat or leaf 

 mould. There are several beautiful 

 varieties of this Orchis, the best being prce- 

 cox and sesquipedalis ; 0. sesquipedalis grows 

 about 1^ feet high, and the stem for fully 

 a third of its length is furnished with 

 densely-arranged flowers of large size and 

 of a purplish- violet hue. 



0. laxiflora is a handsome species, 1 

 foot to 18 inches high, flowering in May 

 and June, rich purplish-red, in long loose 

 spikes. Native of Jersey and Guernsey, 

 and suited for the rock-garden in a moist 

 spot, or the marsh-garden. Division. 



0. maculata (Spotted Orchis). This is 

 usually pretty in the poorest soils, but is 

 a very different plant in a rich one. If 

 well grown in moist and rather stiff 

 garden loam, it will surprise even those 

 who know it well in a wild state. Obtain 



it at any season, and carefully plant twelve 

 or twenty tubers in a patch in a half- 

 shady and sheltered position in moist 

 loam. It flowers in summer, and is an 

 excellent plant for the bog-garden. The 

 variety superba is a much finer plant. 



Orchis maculata snperba. (Engraved from a 

 photograph sent by Rev. C. Wolley-Dod.) 



Other beautiful kinds are 0. papilion- 

 acea, purpurea, militaris, mascula, pyr- 

 amidalis, spectabilis, tephrosanthos, and 

 Robertiana, but all are difficult to estab- 

 lish freely, as they grow in their natural 

 conditions. 



ORIGANUM (Marjoram). The 

 common 0. vulgare is scarcely a 

 garden plant, but another, 0. Die- 

 tamnus (the Dittany of Crete), is a 

 pretty little plant, though somewhat 

 tender. During mild winters, how- 

 ever, it survives unprotected. It has 

 mottled foliage, and small, purplish 

 flowers in heads, like the Hop ; hence 

 it is sometimes called the Hop plant. 



